SpokenHeard with David Perez and Host Susan Dobbe Chase

David Perez travels throughout the United States and beyond performing his written work. A Silicon Valley native, he is committed as much to his own craft as he is to helping others find their voices through the literary and performing arts.

As a spoken word artist, he has performed by invitation in hundreds of venues throughout the United States and Canada, sharing stages with Saul Williams, "Mighty" Mike McGee, and members of the performance ensemble Verbobala. He has represented his home town of San Jose, CA at both the Individual World Poetry Slam and the National Poetry Slam.

A dedicated teacher, Perez has led poetry outreach programs for youth communities throughout the Silicon Valley, and has coached two poetry slam teams competing in the Brave New Voices Festival. Having earned an MFA in creative writing, he has also given workshops at Santa Clara University, San Jose State University, and the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Perez co-hosts The Oversocial Mofo Revue, one of Silicon Valley's largest ongoing performance art events, combining the biggest names in spoken word with a variety show consisting of the Bay Area's most talented musicians, poets, jugglers, burlesque dancers and dejected sideshow clowns. He also co-hosts the Summer Slumberfest, a twenty-four hour open mic that uses video chat to present audiences with live performers all over the world.

He is a recipient of the Arts Council Silicon Valley Fellowship for Literary Art. His first poetry book Love in a Time of Robot Apocalypse is available from Write Bloody Publishing. David also once received an award in the third grade for his participation in the school play. A pre-printed certificate identical to those of his classmates, it nevertheless caused a dormant bank of neurons to tingle with pride and joy. This may have been the beginning of it all, or just a synapse misfiring.